Chronology

A Bronze Age scraper and flints were recovered during construction of a sewer pipe near Lower Conygre Pit.

750 BC to AD 43

The sites of two barrows generally known as Wallmead I and II near Wallmead Farm. Bronze Age artefacts recovered and four cremation burials. Iron Age occupation was also indicated by a single pit and pottery.

AD 43 to AD 410

A collection of finds recovered during the construction of the houses at Lansdown Crescent in 1937 including Roman pottery, a bronze pin, and coins. A late Roman fibula found behind Lansdown View during drain construction in 1931.

1068

The Lord of the Manor at this time was Gonnerd and he sublet two parts to Apius, alias Ape, and Sibus alias Sibe.

1085

Timsbury recorded in the Doomsday Book as Temesbare and Timeserie. The Bishop of Coutance, who accompanied William the Conquerer, held 280 manors in the King’s name. One of these was Timsbury. By the time of the completion of the Domesday Book, the tenant in capite was Odo Flandrensis and both parts of the manor were held by William de Montcelli as subtenure.

1100

Godfrey, Bishop of Bath, receives from Adelais, the second wife of Henry 1, the manor of Timsbury to give to the Clunaic Priory of Monkton Farleigh, Wiltshire.

1200

William de Whaddone is Lord of the Manor.

1212

Ralph de Waddone holds Timsbury for one knight’s fee.

1232

Henry de Waddone pays 40 marks for the advowson (In effect this means the right to nominate a person to hold a church office in a parish.) of St Mary’s Chapel.

1247

Prior Simon of Monkton Farleigh gives Timsbury land to Adam the Master of St John the Baptist Hospital, Bath. This included the mill.

1297

Henricus – first record of an incumbent for St Mary’s Church

1331

Sir Michael de Waddon is Lord of Timsbury Manor.

1338

Richard de la Felde is rector.

1344

William de Edyndon buys Timsbury Manor.

1350

Robert Mercoke is rector.

1350

William Bey is rector.

1361

Nicholas de Carscombe is rector.

1362

John Pratt is rector.

1403

Sir Ayler de St Amand is Lord of the Manor.

1404

Richard Rycheman is rector.

1404

Eleanor de St Amand, widow of Sir Ayler de St Amand, is now Lady of the Manor.

1406

Stephen Austwell is rector.

1407

John Meire is rector.

1412

Roger Bere is rector.

1416

John Grove is rector.

1441

Sir William Palton is Lord of the Manor.

1442

John Andrew is rector.

1449

William Vylers (alias Baker) is rector. He was formerly rector of Bradford upon Avon.

1457

William Cary is rector.

1457

Sir John Cheyne is Lord of the Manor.

1483

Nicholas Lisle is Lord of the Manor.

1483

William Danyel is rector.

1527

Gideon Hackluyt is rector.

1527

Thomas Lisle is Lord of the Manor.

1546

Partition of Lisle estates and John Sambourne becomes Lord of the Manor. First of thrteen generations of Sambournes as Lords of the Manor.

Timsbury consists of about 50 houses most of which form a street near the church. The lands are mostly pasture, well wooded with elm, and are worth 15-30s an acre.

1788

Anniversary of Club feast at Timsbury on Monday 4 August. 150 members walked in procession to church with red staves and ribbons preceded by a band. Sermon by Rev Mr Gunning. Dinner after at Club room.

1791

New Tyning and New Grove coalworks started: a partnership between Messrs Crang, Mogg and Samborne Palmer.

4,000 colliers from Timsbury and Paulton met High Sheriff J H Coxe, esq; Major Tucker; Messrs Mogg, Crang and James, and other proprietors of pits, demanding increased wages. Demands granted – haulers increase from 14d to 17d/day, miners from 16d to 18d. All returned to work.

1793

Somerset Coal Canal – coal proprietors met at Old Down to consider a canal from collieries to Bath.

1794

Somerset Coal Canal excavations started.

1795

On Thursday 2 July, a man belonging to the New Coal Works Timsbury, drew in a wagon from the pit to Mr Groom’s yard in Bath, a piece of coal weighing 1 ton 5¾ cwt 26 lbs.

Timsbury consists of 198 inhabited houses and 208 families, 22 of whom are employed in agriculture, 20 in trade and 166 not comprised in either class. Of the later the greater part are employed in the coal works. The population of the parish has increased by 1/3 within the last 20 years.

1825

Rebuilding of St Mary’s Church completed, but Reverand Barter died before the completion of the work.

1825

Charles Trelawney Collins is rector.

1830

First National School built at junction between Mill Lane and South Road.

1841

Richard Hill is rector.

1845

Accident at Hayeswood Colliery on 23rd January. Seven men injured. On 4th February, Hayeswood Colliery is flooded and seven men and four boys drowned.

Leigh Thomas Rendell is rector. He is the nephew of Reverend Richard Hill.

1885

Old pews removed from St Mary’s Church.

1889

Samborne Stuckley Palmer Samborne gives additional land for the graveyard.

1894

First elected Parish Council installed to replace the old Vestry Meetings.

1895

Conygre Colliery disaster on 6th February. Seven miners killed.

1902

William Yorke Fausset is rector.

1904

Samborne Stuckley Palmer Samborne dies. His son John Stuckley Palmer Samborne becomes Lord of the Manor. He is the last member of the Samborne family to be Lord of the Manor.

1910

Lower Conygre Colliery closed for a year. GWR Timsbury Halt opened.

1910

Charles Ruddock Mead King is rector.

1911

A year of labour disputes.

1912

Upper and Lower Conygre Collieries closed for a month.

1914

Lower Conygre Colliery flooded when Withy Mills workings breached.

1915

Upper and Lower Conygre Collieries closed in June.

1919

John Stukley Palmer Sambourne gives more land for the graveyard.

1926

First council houses built in Newman’s Lane.

1934

Joseph Claude Rose is rector.

1934

Stage 1 of the Lansdown housing scheme.

1934

New Senior Secondary School opened.

1946

Prefabricated houses built at Greenvale.

1956

Hugh Vipond Davies is rector.

1956

Stage 2 of Lansdown housing scheme.

1960

Demolition of Timsbury House begins.

1973

Newly built Conygre Hall opened.

1975

Land purchased for permanent allotments in Lippiatt Lane.

1976

Peter Cole Robson is rector.

1977

Centre of the village designated a Conservation Area.

1978

First copies of the ‘Timsbury Letter’.

1980

Clifford Albert Jones is rector.

1986

John Peter Cyril Reed is rector.

1994

Christopher Charles Brown is rector.

1994

Centenary of Timsbury Parish Council

1995

Miner’s Memorial Garden opened.

2000

Christopher Hare is rector.

2013

Martin Blewett is rector.

2015

William Smith, the father of geology, commemorations of Bicentenary of his ‘map that changed the world’, the ideas for which he developed while working near the village. Also, the start of the restoration of the Somersetshire Coal Canal.